Democratic primary to unseat Republican Rep. Jeff Hurd in western Colorado turns competitive
Two Aspen-area Democrats will now compete in the June primary to see who will take on Hurd in November
Madison Osberger-Low/The Aspen Times
A new challenger seeking to unseat U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, a Grand Junction Republican representing Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, has turned the Democratic primary competitive.
Dwayne Romero, a former member of the Aspen City Council and Aspen School District Board of Education, and a former Army Ranger, announced Tuesday that he was running in the Democratic primary to be the candidate to take on Hurd in the November election.
He will now face Aspen-area businessman Alex Kelloff, who for months had been the sole primary candidate, in June for the Democratic nomination.
In an ad Tuesday announcing his candidacy, Romero criticized Hurd’s support for President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, focusing on its projected cuts to health care.
“I’m running for Congress because Jeff Hurd and Donald Trump have taken too much,” Romero said.
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Kelloff, a financier who co-founded Armada Skis, had announced his candidacy for the Democratic ticket in April. In a statement Tuesday following Romero’s announcement, Kelloff said he respects “anyone who chooses to run for public office,” but that “we as Democrats need to be serious about flipping this seat.”
Kelloff added that Democrats “must be honest about what hasn’t worked in the past” in trying to win the 3rd Congressional District, and that entering the race “at the very last moment, not having done the work, won’t cut it.”
Campaign finance disclosures for the end of December, the most recent period available, show Kelloff raising more than $850,000. Kelloff said Tuesday he has since raised over $1 million.
“The path forward is clear: support the candidate who has been doing the hard work, building trust, raising the resources and listening to the people of this district from day one,” Kelloff said. “This race is too important to put at risk.”
Hurd won the 3rd Congressional District in 2024, beating former Aspen City Council member Adam Frisch by 5 percentage points, or 19,804 votes. Before that, the seat was held by Rep. Lauren Boebert, who came within 546 votes of losing her reelection bid in 2022 to Frisch.
Frisch threw his support behind Romero’s campaign Tuesday in a post on X, calling Romero a “trusted public servant and leader ready to take the fight to Jeff Hurd.”
On the Republican side, Hurd faces a primary challenge from Hope Scheppelman, a Navy veteran and critical care nurse practitioner who lives in southwest Colorado.
Scheppelman has criticized Hurd for some of his more moderate positions that go against Trump’s agenda. In her campaign announcement last summer, she called Hurd a “liberal elitist who is dead set against President Trump and the millions of MAGA citizens like me who demand that Congress does the will of voters.”
Hurd recently lost Trump’s endorsement for reelection after he joined with Democrats in the House to pass a resolution to rescind tariffs that Trump imposed on Canada last year.
Campaign finance reports show Hurd has raised over $2.3 million as of the end of December, while Scheppelman has raised $212,000.
